2017 Long Island Amateur Recap
On Friday, June 23rd, Garett Engel of the Seawane Club won the 2017 Long Island Amateur Championship at St. George's Golf & Country Club in a stirring 38 hole final match against Michael Miranda of Bethpage State Park. The match featured long distance fireworks: In the morning, Miranda drove it to 10 feet on the 350 yard par 4 fifth hole, and had 230 yards to the green after his afternoon drive on the 590 yard par 5 second hole; on the 38th hole, Engel's second shot three wood from the rough put him on the green and directly led to his winning birdie. In addition, there were terrific up and downs and nerve-wracking putting to some of the most difficult hole locations on St. George's greens. Engel went 4 down with seven holes to play in the match (which was scheduled for 36 holes), and fought his way back, which included one-putting the 34th, 35th and 36th holes to square it. The match statistics show a slight advantage for Engel: over 38 holes, he hit 3 more fairways and 2 more greens in regulation, was in 2 fewer bunkers and took 2 fewer putts (some of that advantage was nullified by Miranda's decidedly-longer drives). On behalf of the LIGA staff, its volunteers and the 2017 Long Island Amateur Championship competitors, we would like to express our appreciation to the members, officers and employees of St. George's for opening their club and course to the event, and showing us the hospitality and skill required to produce a wonderful championship.
For complete results in the Long Island Amateur Championship match play bracket, click here.
For video highlights of the final match, go to talkingtristategolf.com.
For a 2017 Long Island Amateur Photo Gallery, click here.
For a video featuring an interview with Garett Engel, click here.
The 2017 Long Island Amateur is currently featured on the “Talking Tri-State Golf” Podcast: click here.
The podcast (Episode 006) includes interviews with the following guests (each interview begins in the podcast at the time indicated):
1:58 – Garett Engel, 9:10 – Mike Miranda, 12:11 – Doug Vergith, 15:27 – George Burns, 22:50 – Charlie Robson, 27:16 – Chris Crenshaw
In Day Two of match play, Garett Engel of the Seawane Club and Michael Miranda of Bethpage State Park each won quarterfinal matches in the morning and semifinal matches in the afternoon to reach the final match. Engel defeated Russ Aue of the Nassau Players Club in 19 holes in the morning, and James Nicholas of Deepdale Golf Club 2 up in the afternoon (Nicholas won his morning match 1 up against defending champion Darin Goldstein of Noyac Golf Club.). Miranda defeated Michael Frizalone of Bethpage State Park 2 up in the morning, and Michael Weinert of Fresh Meadow Country Club 3 and 2 in the afternoon (Weinert defeated Michael Blum of Engineers Country Club 2 and 1 in the morning.).
31 players plus last year's Champion, Darin Goldstein, began match play in the Long Island Amateur Championship on Wednesday morning. There was an 8 for 6 playoff at 73 on Tuesday evening to determine the final competitors who made match play. (Note: one competitor who shot 73 did not show for the playoff.) In the playoff, on hole number one, Matthew Sweeney made birdie and Clancy Waugh, Garett Engel, Brian Brown and Michael Weinert made par to qualify. The remaining three made bogie and moved to the second hole, where Steve Perrone and Christopher White made birdie to advance, and Christopher O'Keefe's par did not enable him to advance. On the third hole, Christopher White made par to become the 32nd seed. *After the playoff was over and Wednesday morning's pairings were complete, Will Rand succeeded in reaching us by telephone to inform us that he had made a 4 on the 16th hole, but his online hole by hole scores showed a 3. When we checked the actual scorecard, Mr. Rand had signed for 3 on that hole. Therefore, Mr. Rand was disqualified under Rule 6-6d, and Mr. Romeo received a walkover into the (Wednesday afternoon) round of 16.
For Day One scoring in the 2017 Long Island Amateur Championship at St. George's G & CC, click here.